On October 19th, I was honored to volunteer at a teacher’s professional development conference called EdCamp Worcester, hosted at Worcester Technical High School. EdCamp Worcester was a fun, laid-back opportunity for teachers to network with other educators from across the Greater Worcester region. This was a conference where all teachers were there by choice, eager to ask questions, share passions, and learn from each other.
One of the things teachers that attended liked about EdCamp was the fact that they were welcome to pitch ideas, facilitate a PD session, and share information with other teachers freely in a welcoming environment. Both educators and student volunteers were encouraged to share best practices, challenges, and passions, each listening for key information to enhance their learning and teaching.
There was no single expert in the room; participants were empowered to have a voice and choice at EdCamp. We as student volunteers not only acted as building tour guides for visitors, but we also had a voice to tell how we feel best supported in our classrooms and what types of things engage us as students. In one session, a group of us from various Worcester high schools spoke on a panel about what would we like to share with our teachers. We spoke about what keeps us engaged in the classroom, what helps us learn and what would we wish our teachers did more of.
Ms. Lara DeRose, Instructional Coach at Worcester Tech, said, “Edcamp Worcester was an opportunity for our innovative teachers to explore new teaching tools and learn from each other. Worcester Tech teachers participated in workshops on Google Tour creator, Phenomena Science, Student Voice, Video Making Apps, Wakelet and more. We also inspired other teachers as we shared and presented our current teaching practices. I think we are all looking forward to attending next year!”
It was great to see teachers gaining new skills and that they are truly lifelong learners, excited about bringing best practices back to their students.
For more information about EdCamp, visit https://www.edcamp.org/